


Compromises

by CastielLovesDean



Series: Compromises [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Renegotiated Sokovia Accords, Bottom Steve Rogers, Canon Divergence - Captain America: Civil War (Movie), M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Serum-related sexual difficulties, Steve and Tony are engaged, Steve is Captain AMERICA (Not Captain PLANET), Steve is more open about his sex life, Steve is repeatedly embarrassed and not in a kinky way, Tony "didn't" try to give himself a serum to improve his sex life, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony has a Protocol for everything, Tony isn't jealous
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-19
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-07-08 11:07:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 20,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19868596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CastielLovesDean/pseuds/CastielLovesDean
Summary: What if Steve and Bucky were a thing during the late 30's and early 40's? What if, after dating for 3 1/2 years, Steve and Tony just got engaged, and then Bucky showed up at the Compound before the Sokovia Accords were signed?





	1. Arrival

April, 2016.

The Avengers had just been informed that the United Nations was drawing up a document that was being called the Sokovia Accords. These Accords would make any non-U.N.-sanctioned action by any Avenger illegal. They could get on board or risk prison.

Most of the Avengers engaged in a tense argument about the Accords. They were pretty evenly split, but the most notable split was between Steve and Tony, who only last week had formally announced to the world that they were engaged to be married. This came as a surprise to most of the world, moreso than it had been to the team when they announced their three-year relationship to them over the holidays.

The surprise had little to do with them both being men. Archaeologists had discovered love letters between Steve and Bucky from World War II. While Steve was initially hesitant, he gave his blessing for them to be published after Bucky had reemerged as the Winter Soldier and went on the run. It was important to him that people see Bucky for who he really was: American hero, loving man, victim. Tony... well, his very long string of lovers had a few men peppered in there. If anything, people were surprised that Tony was getting married at all, regardless of to whom.

But really, the surprise had everything to do with the fact that no one aside from Vision, Pepper, Happy, and Wanda had suspected a thing. Steve was always such an above-board kind of guy and Tony just did not give a fuck what anybody thought, so it was weird enough that they'd bothered to hide it. Plus, they were both perpetually in the spotlight, and they literally worked in close quarters with a few world-class spies, so the fact that they were able to hide their relationship was amazing.

The jokes about them flirting or “arguing like an old married couple” went out the window once people found out that they were, in fact, a couple. Steve would have killed for one of those jokes right now to temper the mood in the room. He stared down his shiny new fiancé while he fiddled with his shiny new engagement ring. Situations like this were why it took them so long to share their relationship: as much as they both wanted it to work, neither one of them had a lot of hope that it would last very long.

FRIDAY's voice cut through unexpectedly. “Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes has just arrived by foot on the compound. He appears to be heading for the front door.” She put video of his approach on the nearest screen.

Everybody in the room turned their attention from the Accords to watch the screen. Tony only saw the look of shock, horror, and relief on Steve's face for about a blink of an eye before the larger man was a blur, leaving random pages of paper to flutter violently in the air in his wake. It was easy for Tony to forget how damn fast Steve was when he was relaxing at home in civilian clothes, and then this happens, and he's reminded that he's engaged to Sonic the Hedgehog.

After a couple seconds, everyone scrambled to follow Steve.

Tony walked over to the window and opened it. “Hey FRIDAY, activate the Bucky Protocol.”

“Activating the Bucky Protocol.”

He stepped into the Iron Man suit that showed up, flew out the window, and headed to catch up to Steve and the rest of the team.

Steve had barely managed to resist the urge to throw himself out of that window, as it was the quickest and most direct way to the yard and, therefore, to Bucky. The longer, more sensible route through the facility and down a few flights of stairs was agony with every step. He hit the front door at too high a speed, blasting it from its hinges instead of flinging it open like he'd intended. A string of divots formed in the grass as he sprinted across the lawn toward Bucky, who stood there and waited for him.

Steve uprooted more grass as he lurched to a halt a couple feet from Bucky, Vision silent at his flank. Steve and Bucky stared at each other for a moment. “Do you know me?”

“You're Steve. I read about you in a museum.” Bucky's voice was flat, but his face betrayed his emotional state. He looked at Steve as he spoke to him but didn't meet his eyes.

Steve's goal was to get Bucky inside, where he'd be safe and sound for the first time in over seventy years. The last thing he wanted to risk after everything that had happened was for Bucky to get scared off. “I know you're nervous. And you have plenty of reason to be.” Oh, Bucky so wanted to bolt; it was written all over his face. Steve preferred not to have to chase him down and tackle him, but he was willing to do so if needed. “But you're lying.”

Bucky stood there and didn't reply as the rest of the Avengers arrived to back him up.

Steve pushed. “You pulled me from the river. Why?”

“I don't know.”

“Yes you do.”

Bucky stared miserably at nothing. Steve's heart broke. He closed the distance between them, put his arms around Bucky, and just held him for the first time since 1944. Bucky hid his face in Steve's neck and breathed in his scent. It took about a minute but Bucky eventually relaxed into the hug, sighing. Steve tried not to dwell on what Tony must have been thinking.

The rest of the team dwelled, though. Every one of them stared at Tony from the corner of their eyes, as if they thought they were being subtle.

Tony just shook his head and dismissed their attention with a short wave of his hand, his rational mind prevailing over what everyone expected would be an emotional response. “Better bring it inside,” Tony told Steve and Bucky. “Last thing we need is some looky-loo with a drone or helicopter leaking this to the press.”

Steve and Bucky realized Tony was right. They let go of each other and made their way toward the damaged front door of the compound, Steve's arm around Bucky's back out of fear that Bucky would try to flee. As they passed Tony, Steve reached out to him and gave his armored hand a soft squeeze.

Inside the building, Steve noticed a flurry of activity that wasn't there a few minutes prior. One of Tony's drones approached them and greeted Bucky in FRIDAY's voice. “Welcome to the Avengers Compound, Sergeant Barnes. Allow me to show you to your quarters.” It gestured toward the compound's living area where all their rooms were located.

Steve, Bucky, and Tony followed the drone to a room Steve had previously believed to be empty. The room's décor didn't have a lot of personality, but it did have several large digital picture frames, all of which apparently rotated different pictures of Steve. There was one poster-sized group picture of the Howling Commandos above the headboard.

Steve and Tony lingered by the door while the drone showed Bucky around and explained the suite's high-tech automated features. “Do you really think you need to wear your suit?” Steve asked.

“Well, our new housemate is a mentally unstable super-soldier with a robot arm, and I'm the frail, non-enhanced human that's sleeping with his boyfriend. Yeah, I'm gonna wear the suit for a while.”

“That's smart,” Bucky chimed in from the bathroom. “Good strategy.”

“He's not going to hurt you, Tony.”

“You're probably right,” Tony agreed without moving to take off his armor.

The drone exited the bathroom without Bucky, and they heard the shower start to run.

They lingered near the bedroom door in silence for a few minutes before Tony said, “I have some things I need to get done. Stay with Barnes. Show him around, help him get settled in... order him some food. He's probably exhausted; I figure he'll eat and then sleep. The Accords can wait until tomorrow.”

“Yeah,” Steve said, unenthusiastically. He stared at the floor and seemed to be deep in thought.

Tony had one more thing to say before he left Steve and Bucky alone, but struggled to find the right way to say it. “Hon?”

“Hm?”

“This is going to sound weird, but hear me out.”

Steve gestured for Tony to continue.

“This is a long time coming, Bucky coming back. Seventy-two years... I can't even imagine....” Tony took a breath. “Look, you're both very emotional right now, so I just want you to know that if he kisses you-”

“Tony,” Steve interrupted.

“-or if one thing leads to another-”

“Tony, I'm not-”

“It's okay,” Tony finished.

Steve blinked at him. “... _What?_ ”

Tony smiled sadly at his fiancé. “You'd have married him, if you could have. Correct me if I'm wrong, which, you know, I'm not.” Tony gave Steve the chance to argue, then continued. “You had something of a life together in the thirties and forties, but at the time, you weren't really allowed. Then he died, then you died, then you woke up and he was still dead. Then two years ago you find out he's not dead, but his mind wasn't right. And now his mind is healing and he finally remembers he loves you, and you could even marry him if you want to, and... I'm all that's left standing in your way.”

“You're not 'in the way,' Tony.”

“I would be, by conventional social standards. But I can't be that thing, Steve, that stops you when you're two feet from the happiness that's been just out of reach for nearly a century. I don't want to cause you any more grief than my personality naturally does.”

“I love your personality.”

“You _tolerate_ my personality. It's the rest of me you love. I mean it, though. We're not talking about some guy you met in a bar, alright? It's _Bucky._ By all means: kiss him, cuddle him, lie next to him and just watch him sleep. Sew your hand to his because if he decides to fall off another train, he's gonna have to take you with him. I promise you my feelings are not going to be hurt, and I refuse to be jealous of a guy who's spent seventy years enslaved to the most evil organization in modern history.”

Steve narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “You're being very rational about this.”

“I'm a rational kind of guy. Besides, I've had two years to plan for this exact scenario.”

“And that plan involves me cuddling with Bucky?”

Tony shrugged. “In the long term, it might involve us _both_ cuddling with Bucky.”

A few emotions rapidly made their way across Steve's face. First confusion, then surprise, then indignation. “Oh God, Tony! Every time. Every time I think you're....” Steve trailed off, unable to finish the sentence as Tony was shaking his head. “So it turns out _that's_ what all this is about: some salacious fantasy of manipulating me into having a threesome.”

“' _Salacious._ ' Wow. No, that's not-”

“Did someone say threesome?” Bucky asked, walking out of the bathroom wearing a bathrobe. He headed to the closet to pick out some clothes and change behind the open closet door.

“It was Steve,” Tony said obnoxiously, pointing at Steve as if he were a five-year-old tattle-tale.

“It was _Tony's_ idea,” Steve added. He still sounded irritated.

“It was _not_ my idea; _you're_ jumping to conclusions.”

Steve crossed his arms. “Enlighten me.” His expression softened when Bucky closed the closet door and joined them wearing pajama pants and a Captain America licensed tee.

“Alright. I wanted to wait because I think it's a little soon, but here goes. The best case scenario for us long term, like in the distant-distant future, is if the three of us were to eventually become a 'throuple.' It's like a couple, but with three people.”

Steve squinted. “Your plan is... polygamy?”

“Poly _amory_ ,” Tony corrected. “Polygamy is having multiple spouses, which... not technically legal in this country; polyamory is just loving more than one person. Technically, _you're_ already there. If we can get Barnes on board with this, you won't have to choose between us.”

“What're you saying, there's plenty of Steve to go around?” Bucky asked. “He can have his cake and eat it, too?”

Tony addressed Bucky directly. “I'm _saying_ Steve has a big heart, and there's room enough for both of us, I think.”

“If you want him, why don't you fight for him?”

“BECAUSE I'LL LOSE,” Tony snapped.

Bucky's expression was unreadable, but Steve's jaw dropped as if he'd been hurt. He seemed like he was about to say something.

Tony took a deep breath to calm himself. He thought he'd gotten past these feelings when they first came about. “I've done the math, alright? And there is _no_ equation where Steve picks me over you. I know it seems like it's up to Steve, but he'll pick you, so that means it's your choice. Now, I don't want to lose him.” Tony knew he was basically begging. “But more importantly to you, _Steve_ wants this.”

Bucky looked to Steve. “Steve hasn't-”

“No, he hasn't said so, no,” Tony agreed. “The idea of non-monogamy as anything other than 'cheating' is new to him, conflicts with what he's understood all his life to be proper social order. He feels guilty for loving both of us. But Steve's nothing if not adaptable, and he has an incentive to adapt, doesn't he? All he's wanted since 1944 is to have you back in his life, but if you'll notice, he hasn't smiled once since you arrived. You know why? It's because he believes he's going to have to lose one of us to keep the other. It's Sophie's choice. You, and only you, have the power to save him from having to make that choice.”

Bucky looked at Steve, then again at Tony. He didn't say anything.

Tony added, “I feel like you're on the fence about this. You don't know me, and you certainly don't owe me anything, but you were friends with my dad. Maybe that's enough to buy me a chance.”

Bucky's face had been nearly blank since he'd arrived, but now it fell in sorrow. His lip quivered. He didn't cry, but he looked like he could. “Alright,” he said.

“Yes?” Tony repeated, hopes up. “We can try this?”

Bucky nodded. “Yeah.”

“Steve?”

Steve sighed, half a smile on his lips. “Yeah.”

“Great.” Tony sighed in relief. “It's settled. So me and Steve, well, we're already engaged. You two... uh... whatever. Barnes and I will get to know each other. In maybe a few months, get together and see if we want to upgrade from 'Steve has two boyfriends' to a real throuple. I'll let the others know so you don't have to sneak about the compound, but you guys are gonna have to figure out if and when to go public. Now I really do have some things I gotta take care of.” He went to leave the room.

“Tony,” Steve stopped him.

Tony turned around to face his fiancé. “Yeah.”

Steve stepped forward and kissed him. “I love you.”

Tony cupped the side of Steve's face delicately. He said, “I know,” with a smile, then left.


	2. The New Accords

The next morning, the entire team, plus Bucky, was assembled at the conference room table to continue their discussion regarding the Sokovia Accords. Tony stood up at the head of the table and addressed everyone. “Before we open the floor to discussion, I have three very important points to make.”

No one argued, and Tony took that to mean he should go ahead.

“First point. I was saying yesterday that we need to be put in check. I still firmly believe that. The Sokovia Accords would do that. I also still believe that if we don't work with the UN, this,” he gestured to the Sokovia Accords, “is going to be done _to_ us, whether we like it or not.”

He sighed and let his first point linger for a moment. “Second point. We can't sign them.”

Steve looked up at him abruptly from his seat between Tony and Bucky. He had not been expecting such an about-face in the last 24 hours. He seemed hopeful.

Tony swiped something on his phone, and suddenly Bucky was on the screens in the room: his SSR facesheet, personal history, even parts of his Hydra Winter Soldier file. “You might recall Sergeant Barnes showing up yesterday. We all know his history. From what I can tell, he's feeling a lot more himself since escaping Hydra two years ago. Now, everyone in this room understands that the things Hydra forced him to do are not his fault. The politicians and bureaucrats in the UN?” Tony shook his head. “The way the Accords are written, they could send a squad of JSOC guys to the compound to string him up for his Hydra days, and we would have no legal recourse. And to be honest, I don't trust them not to do that.”

Everyone was quiet while that sank in. Even though half the team was for signing the Accords, everyone was on the same page about Bucky: they may not know him, but they knew what he'd been through, and they wanted to see him continue to get better and finally have the chance to live his life. What to do, what to do?

Well, Tony had an answer for that. “Which brings me to my third point. I spent much of yesterday and last night drafting a counter-proposal to the Sokovia Accords. I've uploaded it onto your personal screens for reading. I think it's both reasonable and efficient for both sides and addresses key issues.

“There are two notable changes. First, it gives the UN _influence_ instead of _control_. Instead of telling us what to do via a panel, they'll send two representatives to join the team as full-fledged Avengers. Their representatives will be responsible for knowing all the UN and Accords rules, and the two of them together may veto team decisions on the UN's behalf.

“Second, it allows different countries to give us more or less latitude. We're US-based, and President Ellis is a big fan since I... you know... saved his life. Our operations stateside are not likely to be affected. Wakanda... well, they're reclusive, anyways, so let's not take it personally if they don't want us there at all. Most countries will fall somewhere in the middle.

“Can we all agree to have this read by dinner so we can finalize a draft _tonight_ we're all comfortable presenting to the UN? I think they're meeting for this tomorrow.”

Rhodey said, “You seem pretty confident that the UN is open to a counter-offer.”

“The UN doesn't want to pick a fight with us any more than we want to pick a fight with them,” Natasha pointed out. “I don't know that they'll accept Tony's idea, but they'll hear him out.”

Just as everyone started to get up to leave, FRIDAY piped up, “Sir, Secretary of State Ross is-”

Secretary Ross walked into the room without so much as knocking.

“-here regarding the Sokovia Accords.”

“A little quicker next time, FRIDAY,” Tony instructed, annoyed at the intrusion.

Ross started in on them right away. “What is this I hear that none of you have responded to the Sokovia Accords yet? You were expected to-” He stopped suddenly when his eyes landed on Bucky. All the blood drained from his face. He sputtered for a second before being able to actually form words. “This is outrageous! Have you all lost your goddamn minds?!” he exclaimed. “The Winter Soldier is a massive threat to national security and you just let him in the same room as the Secretary of State.”

Tony left the room immediately and could be seen making a call on his phone. Everyone except Bucky and Wanda stood from their chairs and talked over each other while responding to Ross.

Bucky scowled at the use of his Hydra moniker. “My name is Bucky,” he huffed.

Sam mocked Ross, “I guess barging in here without knocking first is us _letting_ him in.”

“He's not a threat to national security,” Steve insisted, sounding offended.

Vision said, “I suspect if you ask nicely, Sergeant Barnes could actually improve the state of national security.”

“Exactly how long have you people been _harboring_ the Winter Soldier?” Ross demanded.

“ _Buck-y_ ,” Bucky pronounced slowly.

Natasha asked, “How long has it been since you deloused your mustache?”

“If you're so concerned, why are you antagonizing him?” Rhodey asked. He didn't expect a response.

“Yeah, you don't want to make him angry.” Clint added.

“You know, it's rude to show up at someone's house without calling first,” Wanda pointed out.

“I could have every last one of you hanged for treason for not alerting your country to the presence of the goddamn Winter Soldier!”

“It's _Bucky_!” Steve and Bucky _both_ yelled this time.

Wanda shrugged. “I'd survive.” She sipped from a coffee cup, leaning back in her chair.

Clint finished, “You wouldn't like him when he's angry.”

“Do they still hang traitors?” Natasha asked.

Sam yelled, “Stop calling the man by his slave name!”

“When the authorities hear that the Winter So-”

Bucky stood so quickly from his chair that it was violently flung into the wall behind him, cracking the smart glass and silencing the room. He stared down Secretary Ross, clenching and unclenching his metal fist at his side and breathing heavily through his nose. His menacing body language was somewhat undermined by his Captain America pajama set and the feminine side braid that Natasha had done for him.

Ross was white as a sheet: paler even than when he'd first seen Bucky. He may or may not have lacked faith in the Avengers' ability to protect him, but he definitely lacked confidence in their desire to do so.

Bucky looked Ross dead in the eyes for several long seconds while everyone watched nervously. Finally, he collected himself enough to slowly say, “Do. Not. Call. Me. The. Winter. Soldier.” He took a deep breath and huffed one last time, then turned to leave.

Tony reentered the room and caught Bucky before he got out. “You're gonna wanna see this; trust me.” He winked at Bucky and walked up to the table to the right of Steve.

Bucky followed him, curiosity winning over fury. He wound up standing slightly behind Tony and Steve as Tony confronted the Secretary of State.

“Hey, Ross, my buddy Matt wants to talk to you for a second,” he announced obnoxiously. He tossed his phone carelessly onto the conference table, and before Ross could ask who the fuck 'his buddy Matt' was, out of the phone popped a ½ scale 3D hologram of the President of the United States, Matthew Ellis.

Ross looked surprised. “Mr. President.”

Ellis crossed his arms. “Tony tells me you’ve invited yourself into the Avengers compound, disregarded protocol, and are currently disrespecting one of our last veterans from World Word II: the American who survived the longest as a prisoner of war.”

Everybody's mood was softened when the President started defending Bucky. Bucky's jaw dropped. He had assumed that pretty much every authority figure on the planet would have it out for him.

Ross's mood wasn't softened. He scoffed and sputtered at the President's comment. “Mr. President... the Winter Soldier-”

“-That's not his _name_ ,” the President cut him off. “As long as I'm President of the United States of America, my administration will consider Sergeant Barnes and the Winter Soldier to be two separate entities. Sergeant Barnes is not to be held accountable for the actions of the Winter Soldier, a title forced on him after he was captured serving his country honorably in one of our side's most elite military units.

“Now here's what you're going to do. You're going to look him in the eye, you're going to shake his hand, you're going to thank him for his service to and sacrifice for this country and the world, you're going to apologize for being a dick, and you're going to call him 'Sergeant Barnes' while you do it. If not, I expect your resignation on my desk by morning.” The hologram disappeared.

The Avengers reveled in Ross's embarrassment at being dressed-down in front of them by President Ellis. Ross scowled and sighed. He did as he was ordered, though. He looked Bucky in the eye and extended his hand. “Thank you, Sergeant Barnes, for your service and your sacrifices for our country and our planet.” He would have looked more comfortable having a prostate exam in front of a live audience.

Bucky looked at his hand, then looked at Tony, who'd moved aside to give him access. At Tony's encouraging nod, Bucky leaned slightly across the table and took Ross's hand.

“Wasn't there something else?” Tony nudged.

Ross glared at Tony, but continued. “And I apologize.”

“Whatever for?” Tony asked with mock confusion. The team snickered.

Ross glared again. “For being... discourteous.”

Tony broke up the handshake. “Alright, Richard, you're done here. Get out of my house.”

Ross seemed to resist the urge to say something else as he retreated from the room.

Clint very maturely stuck his tongue out at Ross as he left.

“Where were we?” Tony looked around the room. “Ah, yes. Everyone was going to read my version of the Accords; we'll fine-tune it after dinner. Dismissed.” As everybody got up to leave – for real this time – Tony kept Steve and Bucky back.

“Is something wrong?” Steve asked.

“Not wrong, no. Something's just... a thing.” Tony told them that he and President Ellis have a plan to ensure that Bucky would be able to move forward with his life without legal issues related to the Winter Soldier hanging over his head.

First, there was the matter of the backpay that Bucky was due. His official status with the military was seventy years of being a POW followed by two years being missing in action. Federal policy dictated that the United States government owed him his Sergeant salary for the duration, and Tony's lawyers made sure they adjusted for inflation. Bucky was looking at over two million dollars, probably in a few weeks or a month.

Bucky was surprised; Steve was not. Steve had received a similar, though larger, backpay check shortly after he woke up from the ice.

Backpay aside, Tony's and Ellis's plan was going to require some quid pro quo. There would be evaluations by mental health professionals and debriefings by intelligence officers from various organizations. Of course there would. He had to allow Tony and a team of the world's foremost prosthesis designers to study his metal arm; despite being created in the 1940s, it was the most advanced artificial arm on the planet. Being able to recreate its functionality would greatly improve the lives of many people who are missing limbs.

Bucky wasn't looking forward to the interviews and interrogations, but he didn't think they were unreasonable. Same for giving Tony and others temporary access to his arm.

He objected when Tony told him that President Ellis wanted to sensationalize his return from being a prisoner of war, throw him a parade, pin a medal on him, and give him a medical discharge from the army. The parade posed a problem for Bucky. He'd been keeping a low profile for decades. Being the center of attention was a distant memory for him. He was also somewhat concerned that having his location over several hours scheduled and advertised weeks or months in advance would make him an easy target for anyone who wanted him dead.

Bucky understood that the parade was, unfortunately, part of the quid pro quo. The president didn't need to get so personally involved, he didn't have to pull any strings or call in any favors, nor did he have to publicly support him. In return for his help, the president hoped to create a celebrity status for Bucky, then use that status to boost the number of votes he would get during this year's November election.

Bucky also understood that this was all going to happen quickly in order to be done on time. Full of new information and plenty of anxiety, Bucky went off with Steve so they could read the updated Sokovia Accords like everyone else.

Also like everyone else, they managed to agree that Tony had covered the concerns they'd expressed and that this document should be sent to the UN for review.

-


	3. Trouble in Vienna

Tony and Steve tended to get very little sleep. Usually, Steve would help Tony fall asleep, and he'd wind up with a few hours of good-quality rest before waking. If Steve was unavailable, Tony would stay up and tinker until he passed out. It turned out that Bucky was as much an insomniac as Tony. He was a very light sleeper, and he could never manage to sleep more than a couple hours before being instantly wide awake at the slightest noise.

Steve didn't suffer from insomnia; he just didn't get tired as quickly as normal people and slept a full night every third night. This was Steve's night to sleep. Tony said he'd be alright by himself without Steve's help, and Steve and Bucky fell asleep in Bucky's bed together.

Bucky managed an extra hour with Steve by his side, but it still fell short of a full night by a wide margin. He ended up getting out of bed and intended to just wander around the compound's residential area until FRIDAY spoke to him:

“Sergeant Barnes, Mr. Stark requests that you join him in his laboratory.” FRIDAY guided Bucky to the lab.

It turned out that Tony wanted two things. First and foremost, he was dying to get a look at the inner workings of his metal arm, especially how the controls work. But also, he wanted to start getting to know him. After all, that was crucial if they and Steve had any hopes of becoming a throuple.

Bucky agreed to both requests. He sat at the table while Tony inspected his arm and chatted with him for a few hours. Bucky found that Tony had some very irritating qualities and some actually endearing qualities. He was surprised that Steve would marry someone as shamelessly crude as Tony could be. On the other hand, he took Bucky's attitude in stride when Bucky felt like being a little shit. That would be important in their future relationship.

Around dawn, Steve walked into the lab in sleep pants and bed head. “Hey, guys. FRIDAY says you've been down here for hours. Couldn't sleep?” Steve leaned over Tony for a kiss.

After accepting the kiss, Tony realized how late it had gotten and started wrapping up what he was doing. “We've been bonding.”

“Yeah? How's that going?”

“Great,” Tony said. “He offered to shove his metal arm up my ass. You know how I love foreplay.”

“That was a _threat_. What is wrong with you?”

Steve smiled at Tony being classic Tony. “Tony will take any vaguely sexual threat as flirting. And just for the record, he's insatiable, adventurous, and completely shameless, so he'd probably actually like that.”

Bucky squinted at Tony, not trying even a little to hide the judgment.

“It's okay, Buck. Tony and I couldn't stand each other at first. Tony's...”

“An obnoxious jackass?” Bucky finished for him.

“I was going to say 'acquired taste.'”

Tony finished putting away his supplies and stood to leave. “It's funny because 'obnoxious jackass' was Steve's first pet name for me.” He kissed Steve on the cheek. “We should be back in a few days. Don't do anything I wouldn't do,” he added with a wink, then he left.

Steve shook his head. They both knew that Tony was the freak and that left everything on the table. Tony left for Vienna half an hour later with Natasha, Rhodey, and Vision.

A few hours later, the remaining members of the team were gathered in the living area with snacks to watch the Accords on the international news. It was going well. The UN agreed to delay the vote in order to review Tony's counter-proposal, like Natasha expected them to.

King T'Chaka of Wakanda was giving quite the inspirational speech when the unthinkable happened. “When a stolen Wakandan vibranium was used to make a terrible weapon, we, in Wakanda, were forced to question our legacy. Those men and women killed in Nigeria were part of a good will mission from a country too long in the shadows. We will not, however, let misfortune drive us back. We will fight to improve the world we wish to join. I am grateful to the Avengers for working with the international community in this initiative. Wakanda is proud to extend its hand in peace.”

“Everybody get down!” his son could be heard shouting off-screen.

Suddenly, there was noise and fire and screaming and the camera was on the floor shooting a patch of carpet. Movement was visible in the form of wisps of smoke, falling debris, and scattering feet. It was clear that there had been an explosion.

After Steve, Wanda, Sam, and Clint recovered from the shock of what happened, they all pulled out their phones to text members of their team to see who was okay. They got responses immediately.

“Rhodey's okay.”

“Vision's okay.”

“Tony's fine.”

Everybody looked at Clint. Natasha was the last one to check in. Several anxious seconds went by before his phone chirped and he announced, “Tasha's fine.”

Sam and Clint stood up from their spots. “Steve,” Sam said.

“Yeah, I'm right behind you.” As the two left to suit up, Steve told Bucky, “I'm sorry, but we have to go. Anything could be going on in Vienna.”

“That's fine.”

Wanda promised to watch out for Bucky. Steve thanked her and caught up with Sam and Clint. Then, the three of them left for Vienna, leaving Wanda and Bucky alone at the compound.

Within a few hours of the bombing, Steve, Sam, and Clint landed at the UN building, fully-suited, and met up with the rest of the team. Steve handed off the suits FRIDAY had sent with them for Tony and Rhodey and asked for a situation report, preferring to get straight to work. As much as Tony would have liked a hug and a kiss from his fiancé, Steve made it clear a while back that he was uncomfortable with public displays of affection when they were in professional situations.

“There was a bomb in a van that was parked on the street across from the building. Wakanda's King T'Chaka is the only confirmed fatality from the blast so far,” Natasha explained. “We were just told that there's surveillance footage of the bomber putting the bomb in the van early this morning. We're about to get a look at it.”

All seven of them headed inside to see what was going on. For some reason, they were still using the same room they'd been in during the blast, and it was a mess. All the windows were just gone, and there was broken glass all over the floor. Prince T'Challa – or, King T'Challa now, was staring at a spot of blood staining the carpet. Techs were combing through the room to collect evidence before anything could be cleaned up. A screen had been lowered in order to broadcast the surveillance image that had been discovered.

The lights dimmed and the screen lit up. The picture was low quality, but if Steve didn't know better, he'd swear that was Bucky loading that bomb into that van. The investigator who did not, in fact, 'know better' announced that the person in the image had been identified as Bucky, i.e. the Winter Soldier.

Steve shook his head, feeling a wave of panic. He _just_ got Bucky back; he couldn't lose him to a witch hunt now.

Tony was one step ahead of him. He commanded the attention of the room, something he was very good at. “Sergeant Barnes is _not_ the man in the photo for two reasons,” he announced. “First, he escaped Hydra two years ago and has not been under their control since that time. Second, this photo is time-stamped early this morning, but Sergeant Barnes has been at the Avengers compound in upstate New York for the past two days. Barnes and I were in my lab when this photo was taken, and I can prove it with footage from the compound.” Tony took over the screen with more difficulty than that time he took over the screens at his congressional hearing regarding his Iron Man suits. It flickered and lagged at first. He chalked it up to differences between his and European programming styles.

Finally, there they were, large as life. They were sitting at Tony's table, and Tony had opened up the part of Bucky's arm that would have been his deltoid so he could inspect how it interfaced with his biological shoulder. He was poking around with some kind of tool.

Then the audio came blaring through, sharing with the UN and the world forgotten seconds of a several-hours-long conversation that was never meant for public consumption. It opened halfway through one of Tony's sentences:

“-but his muscles are so overpowered, his asshole nearly ripped my dick off.”

Tony choked, absolutely horrified that he had just aired that on the international news. “ _Mute_ ,” he instructed FRIDAY. But the connection was still tenuous, and it didn't mute. He heard Bucky start to laugh. He didn't remember exactly what Bucky was going to say next, but he knew it wasn't good, and he desperately repeated, “ _FRIDAY, mute the footage._ ”

Still nothing. The entire planet got to hear Bucky say, “That's too bad; Steve loves a dick in his ass.”

Steve covered the lower half of his face with his hands. His eyes were glued to the screen like passersby unable to avert their gazes from a gruesome accident. Tony activated his phone so that he could use the software on there to manually override the screen instead of relying on FRIDAY. He may have been literally the best hacker on the planet, but his fingers could only press buttons so fast.

“Bet this metal arm comes in handy, though,” Bucky speculated.

“Shut it down, Tony!” Steve sounded nearly hysterical... which was totally fair.

Footage-Tony continued the conversation: “No shit. He broke three of my fingers and a few toys before I invented a-”

Suddenly, the screen went dark with a loud mechanical _hwoom-hwoom-hwoom_ shutting-down noise. Steve and Tony looked toward the back of the room where the projector was installed. The cable leading to the projector was sliced clean through. A couple feet away, embedded in the wall, was a solitary arrow. Steve and Tony looked at Clint, who had his bow in his hands.

“Oh, I'm sorry,” Clint said sarcastically over the deafening silence in the room. “Were you watching that?”

Tony would have to buy or make something very nice for Clint. He looked at Steve to see his reaction. Steve was _glaring_ at him. Now, Steve had been mad at him before. When they first met after Loki arrived on Earth, they did not get along. Tony recalled when they were on the heli-carrier and Steve was growling at him to put his suit on so he could beat the crap out of him. Tony longed for the relatively mild contempt on Steve's face that day. At least then, Steve hadn't been visibly shaking and beet red. Tony had no doubt that Steve wouldn't lay a finger on him in anger now that they were engaged, but still, he flinched.

Steve was too emotional to form words. He turned and walked silently out of the room, presumably headed back to the Quinjet to be alone with his humiliation.

Tony had to stay because his business with the UN wasn't done. He wasn't that embarrassed for himself. He'd said and done much worse in the public eye in his life. He felt really bad about Steve, though. Steve was super private. Tony knew this had to be mortifying for him. He zoned out, staring at nothing while he processed what transpired in the last sixty seconds. His phone beeped, pulling him from his thoughts. He opened the text from Bucky:

“I guess I don't have to share him, after all. LOL”

Tony wasn't laughing out loud. This sucked, and Bucky wasn't funny. He returned his attention to the UN. “As you can see, Sergeant Barnes has an alibi for the time the photo was taken. He's obviously being framed.”

Some members murmured among themselves. They seemed to come to a consensus way quicker than he'd have ever credited to a bureaucratic body. One member spoke up on their behalf. “We concede that James Buchanan Barnes has an alibi. This presents an equally serious matter, however, for we do not concede this as proof that he was not involved. After being missing for years, it is quite the coincidence that he resurfaced just in time to require that his location is accounted for.”

“It's not a coincidence,” Tony argued. “A week and a half ago, Steve – Captain America and I announced that we're getting married. Barnes and Cap were together for a long time in the thirties and forties. Barnes saw us all over the news and tabloids, and it sparked memories that had been buried when Hydra brainwashed him. That's why he showed up when he did.”

The representative paused in thought. “That is a good explanation.”

Tony sighed. “Thank you.”

“But not good enough to take at face value. The UN needs to interrogate him to be certain he is not a threat.”

“Barnes is already scheduled to be interviewed by doctors and intelligence officers assigned by the United States government.”

“You will have to excuse us if we aren't comfortable relying on your government's word that a previous Hydra agent, willing or not, is safe to be amongst our civilian populations. We must send our own investigators.”

Tony nodded. “We understand and accept. Sergeant Barnes is eager to clear his name. However, for the safety of everyone involved, including Sergeant Barnes, until such time as he is cleared, all interviews must be held at the Avengers compound under the supervision of the team. We are prepared to provide transportation and accommodations for anyone you'd like to send.”

The UN actually agreed to his stipulation without argument. Tony couldn't believe how well that had gone. The UN asked him to wait for them to assign a psychiatrist to return to New York with them with the assurance that the doctor would be there within two hours. Tony was tempted to suggest the psychiatrist just take a different jet, but the desire to win brownie points with the UN swayed him. He told the team they had two hours to kill, and that he'd text them if the doctor got there early, then he started to head back to the Quinjet.

“Mr. Stark,” King T'Challa addressed him.

That stopped Tony in his tracks. He turned around. “Yes, Your Highness.” Gotta be respectful. No need to piss off UN members with his patented Stark sass.

“While I believe that Sergeant Barnes is most likely innocent, I believe that the Avengers will identify the man who murdered my father sooner rather than later. I would like to accompany your team until he is caught.”

Tony imagined what the UN's response would be to T'Challa getting injured or killed in their company. “Your Highness, I don't think-”

T'Challa knew where Tony was going with this. “As King of Wakanda, it was my country's people who were killed in Nigeria,” he pointed out. “Given that, my words carry more weight than those of most other UN members on the issue of the Sokovia Accords. Allow me to join you in the hunt for this man. I can see to it that your counter-proposal is given strong consideration.”

Tony thought about it.

“Or I can _not_ ,” T'Challa added.

Tony smiled that big, fake smile he created for business dealings. “We would be honored for you to join us, Your Highness.”

They parted, and Tony headed back to the Quinjet.

Steve and Natasha were the only ones in the jet. The silence in the air was awkward. Natasha was typing something on her phone, or maybe she was playing a game. Steve was slouching in his seat, arms crossed, ankles crossed, staring straight ahead at absolutely nothing with this look on his face that he gets when he's sick to death of humanity's bullshit.

Tony wanted to apologize, but he also didn't really wanna fuck with Steve when he was in that mood. Then again, maybe apologizing would help his mood. “Honey?” he tried tentatively.

Natasha stopped fiddling with her phone in order to watch the disaster that she expected would unfold in front of her. Steve looked at Tony. He still had that look on his face, only now it was directed at Tony.

Tony wished life had a “control+Z” function because this was not what he wanted. Now that he had his attention, though, he said, “Steve, I'm so sorry.”

Steve returned to staring into nothing. “I'm not mad at you. I know you didn't do it on purpose. But I don't feel like talking, so if you could just....” He let his sentence trail off, not actually having to tell Tony to leave him alone for his request to be understood.

“Yeah. Sure.” Tony headed to the pilot's chair to look busy.

Natasha put her phone away and joined Tony in the cockpit. “Seeing as Steve's not mad, I do have a question: what'd you invent?”

“Romanoff...” Tony warned.

“No, no. This isn't about you and Steve. If you invented a super-dildo, I want in.”

“Not super per se, just a really sturdy vibrator. And Steve doesn't even like it, so you can have it.”

“ _No_ , she can't have it,” Steve huffed. “You can't just give away my... things.”

“Things,'” Tony repeated to Natasha, sounding just a little bitter. “I'm known for two things – genius inventions and having a high sex drive – and I fell in love with a man who can't even say the phrase, 'sex toy.'” He turned to Steve. “What do you care? It's not like you use it.”

Steve scoffed. “I use it,” he insisted as if he'd been insulted.

Tony's whole body flinched, a deliberate exaggeration of shock, no doubt. He looked around the room dramatically as if he were expecting an audience to share in his surprise. “You _use_ it?! When?!”

Steve squirmed uncomfortably in his seat. He glanced quickly at Natasha before looking back at Tony. “Don't you think this is a private conversation?”

Tony looked at Natasha, then again at Steve. “It's just _Nat_ ,” he pointed out, frustrated. “It's been three years. When the hell do you use it?”

Steve shrugged. “It's not like I mark it on the calendar! Maybe once a month?” he guessed.

“Once a-” Tony scoffed. “That's a lot! How come I don't know about this?!”

Natasha answered before Steve could. “It's a top-off.”

Steve and Tony looked at her.

Natasha looked at Steve, not remotely embarrassed at the subject matter. “That's it, right? Every now and then you just need a...” she paused to phrase it delicately, “taste.” Despite her effort, Steve blushed and broke eye contact. “You hide it from Tony because you don't want to remind him that he can't satisfy you.”

Steve's jaw dropped, and he gasped. “Wh- That's not-” He looked at Tony. He could read his fiancé well. Tony was trying to hide embarrassment and hurt behind a sardonic half-grin. “Tony, you satisfy me,” Steve swore.

Tony fiddled with the Quinjet controls. “Yeah, I'm sure you find sex with me all manner of satisfactory.”

“Don't be like that.”

“No, I get it. It's not like it's personal. It takes someone enhanced to do what you like, and I'm not enhanced, ergo...”

Steve's expression became more stern. “We agreed it's too dangerous. I thought that was behind us.”

“What's too dangerous?” Natasha asked.

“Doesn't matter; it's ' _behind us_ ,'” Tony answered. “Especially now that Bucky's back to save Steve from a lifetime of adequate sex.”

“Tony, that's not fair.”

Natasha was connecting the dots. She asked Tony, “Did you try to give yourself a super-soldier serum just to improve your sex life?”

“No.”

She narrowed her eyes at him doubtfully.

“ _My_ sex life is great. I'm not the one with complaints.”

“I don't complain!” Steve protested.

“I know. Because you're a very polite person.”

Steve sputtered and raised his voice. “I don't have sex with you three times a day out of politeness!”

There was a noise from the back of the Quinjet. Everyone turned to look for the source and saw King T'Challa standing there wearing black body armor and holding a catlike helmet and a large suitcase. He eyed all three of them with suspicion. “I'm interrupting something.”

“By the way,” Tony remembered to mention, “I invited the King of Wakanda to join us until we caught the bomber.”

Steve was embarrassed again. He went back to staring at nothing. He sat there, practically catatonic, the entire rest of the time while they awaited the UN's psychiatrist. T'Challa seemed disturbed by his behavior, but everyone else took it in stride as they returned one-by-one.

Just before the two-hour mark, a couple members of the UN showed up at the Quinjet's ramp with a strange man. Everyone, including Steve, stood to greet them. The man was identified as Dr. Theo Broussard from Geneva, and he was tasked with determining how much of a threat Bucky was.

They took off and flew most of the way to the compound without incident. But then there _was_ an incident as they were crossing the eastern seaboard. Almost simultaneously, alerts popped up on their phones, even T'Challa's. The alert was from FRIDAY, and it read:

“Dr. Theo Broussard from Geneva was found dead a couple hours ago in a Berlin hotel room. The police also found a wig and facial prosthesis approximating the appearance of one James Buchanan Barnes. Facial recognition identified the fake doctor as Colonel Helmut Zemo. Sokovian intelligence. Zemo ran EKO Skorpion, a Sokovian covert kill squad.” There were three different images of Colonel Zemo; it was the man in their midst.

All eight Avengers on board turned to him. Zemo wanted their attention? He had it.


	4. Codewords

They were nearly to the compound, anyway, so they landed to refuel and interrogate Bucky about Zemo. Sam and Clint went to raid the kitchen for the trip back to Vienna; everyone else stayed on the Quinjet.

During the apprehension of Zemo, the team had found in his possession a red book with a black star on it. The entire thing was in Russian, so Natasha volunteered to read it and was still doing so when the jet landed.

T'Challa had wanted to interrogate him, but the Avengers had a better plan. Wanda Maximoff was languishing inside the compound bored to tears; might as well give her something to do, like read this asshole's mind. They had texted her when they came up with the plan, and she and Bucky passed Sam and Clint on the landing pad.

Natasha stopped Bucky outside the jet, Steve and Tony at her side. “Probably best to stay away from him,” she said, showing him the book. “I think he knows the words.” Clearly, she'd already explained the words to Steve and Tony.

Bucky was immediately stressed out. “I knew this would happen. Everything HYDRA put inside me is still there. All anyone has to do is say the goddamn words. What does he want with me?”

Steve looked sympathetic. “We don't know yet, but Wanda'll get it out of him. Just give her a minute.”

After about one minute, Wanda came back out of the jet. “He wants to know where you and the other Winter Soldiers were kept in Siberia,” she said. She glanced at Tony.

Tony looked surprised. “The _other_ Winter Soldiers?”

“Who were they?” Steve asked.

Bucky sighed. “The most elite death squad: more kills than anyone in the HYDRA history, and that was before the serum. They speak thirty languages, can hide in plain sight, infiltrate, assassinate, destabilize... they can take a whole country down in one night. You'd never see them coming.”

“Please tell me they're still on ice,” Natasha said.

“They were two years ago,” Bucky said. “After they received the serum, they proved too dangerous for even HYDRA to wield. HYDRA didn't want the money and effort to go to waste, so they just left them in cryo until they could figure out what to do with them. That was,” he paused to recollect the date and do the math, “more than twenty years ago.”

“Can you text us the location of the base?” Tony asked.

“Yeah.” Bucky pulled out his new Avengers cell phone and was just about to do what Tony asked when the three of them started to head back into the Quinjet. He dropped the phone, lunged forward, and caught Natasha by the forearm that was attached to the Winter Soldier manual. “ _What_ are you _doing_?” he demanded.

Natasha used her most intimidating expression to look at Bucky, her arm, and Bucky again. When he reluctantly released her, she said, “We have to go back to Vienna. We have the bomber, intel, and evidence that we have to turn over.”

Bucky shook his head. “No, you have to burn that. And if that Zemo guy knows the words, he has to die!”

“We don't execute unarmed prisoners, Buck,” Steve admonished.

Tony agreed, “Yeah, not with a UN representative hanging around.”

Steve scowled at Tony. “Not at _all_. But Tony has a point. T'Challa has already seen the book. He knows it's important evidence. If we don't turn it over to the UN, they will never trust us again, and we'll all be on the run forever.”

Bucky shook his head again, desperately. “You don't understand. As long as anyone knows those words, I'm not safe, and no one is safe _from_ me.” He was on the verge of tears. “They need to be wiped from existence.”

“What about wiped from your mind?” Wanda asked.

Tony snapped his fingers and pointed at her. “Yes! I like where you're going with this.”

“Can you do it?” Steve asked.

Wanda shrugged. “What do I know? I've never tried it before. But I feel like I probably could.”

Bucky fiddled with the new bracelet on his metal left wrist as he stared at Wanda. “Yeah,” he agreed hesitantly. “It's worth a try. And I trust her.”

Wanda smiled.

Tony looked between Wanda and Bucky. “Are you wearing matching bracelets?”

Bucky looked at his bracelet and mentally kicked himself for drawing attention to it. “Wanda called them 'friendship bracelets.'”

Tony's face lit up in a smile. “That's adorable.”

“They're awful long for friendship bracelets,” Natasha pointed out, noticing that a single bracelet had to be wrapped around the wrist several times. “What do they say?”

Bucky and Wanda exchanged a look, then Wanda took hers off and handed it to Natasha.

Natasha began reading it out loud, “Steve loves a- _oh._ ”

That got Steve's attention. “It _does not_ say that.” He took the bracelet from Natasha and read it for himself. And yes: it did say that. He scowled at Wanda, who had the good sense to pretend to be ashamed, and Bucky, who did not. He scoffed and handed the bracelet back to Wanda. “I'm going back to Vienna,” he pouted. Then he stormed onto the Quinjet, Natasha on his heels.

Tony stayed with Wanda and Bucky at the bottom of the ramp until Steve was out of sight, then he covered his mouth to muffle a snicker. “You two should be ashamed of yourselves!” he lectured as loudly and sternly as he could. He muffled another snicker. “This has been really hard on him!” _'Can I get one of those?'_ he mouthed and pantomimed. “You two owe Steve a huge apology when we get back!” He whispered, “Iron Man colors,” gave them a thumbs-up, and followed Steve and Natasha into the Quinjet.

Wanda and Bucky headed back into the compound, passing Sam and Clint once again, only this time the men were carrying a large cooler each. Once they were alone, Wanda turned to Bucky. “So about these words....”


	5. Tac Team

Seven Avengers and King T'Challa strode purposefully down the Quinjet ramp at the UN headquarters in Vienna with their prisoner, Colonel Helmut Zemo, in tow. Steve and Tony led the procession through the main doors off the helipad, where they met their assigned contact.

Without diplomacy, Tony asked, “Who do I yell at for sending a Sokovian spy to my house?”

“We are still trying to figure out how this happened,” their contact admitted. “In the meantime, our tactical team is waiting for your briefing.” Some UN personnel collected their prisoner, and their contact led them to the team's command center. It reminded them of a SHIELD control room.

They entered at the back center of the room. There were three curved rows of five tables, and at each table sat two chairs. The rows had a mild stadium seating effect in that each row was two steps higher than the one in front if it. The front of the room had large screens that were off at the moment. The sides of the room were lined with computer stations.

There were twelve tac team members, fully suited and ready for a mission. Their team took up the left three tables in the front two rows, but two members were standing in the front of the room in conversation. The Avengers weren't provided with the tac team's personnel information as it was considered top secret, but they assumed that the grizzly, older man at the front was their leader.

Their contact informed them, “I will be waiting just outside to show you to your suite after the briefing.”

Steve and Tony thanked him and led the way to the four empty tables on the right. They noticed that their seating had been unnecessarily assigned, with little name cards at each chair. They were tempted to just sit wherever they wanted, but they seemed to telepathically come to the conclusion that it wasn't worth making waves over a seating chart.

Steve was seated at the far end of the front row, to the right of Natasha. When he pulled his chair back, he saw that someone had left what appeared to be a dark gray solid metal phallus sitting upright in his spot. Natasha saw it, too, and snatched it before he had the chance to react. He put a gentle hand on her arm and looked her in the eye as the tac team members giggled at their bigoted prank.

Natasha gave him a small nod: a promise not to do anything that would make their situation with the UN worse. She turned to T'Challa, whose assigned seat was to her left, and placed it on the table in front of him. “Tell me, Your Highness, in your experience as a member of the United Nations, are metal dildos standard party favors for tac team briefings?”

Before T'Challa could answer, the apparent tac team leader responded in a thick Russian accent. “Oh that's not just any metal, that's _iron_. Custom made for our,” he grinned, “special guest.” He winked lasciviously at Steve.

“That is enough, Commander,” T'Challa interjected while the Avengers stared the man down. “You forget they are here to assist you in apprehending five dangerous individuals. Listen to their intel, and then we can all go while you stay behind as late as you like formulating your plan. It has been a _long day_.” He leaned toward Natasha and spoke softly. “And I will see to it that this,” he indicated the iron dildo in front of him, “is dealt with, Ms. Romanoff.”

Now that that was handled, and he had a better understanding of the people he was dealing with, Steve took a good look at how their seats were arranged. The fourth member of their team that was in the front row, on the other side of T'Challa in the position of importance closest to the center of the room, was Clint. Behind him was Tony, as far as he could get from Steve. Next to Tony was Vision, then Sam and Rhodey at the table behind him. The look on their faces showed that they'd figured it out, too.

They were being ranked by some arbitrary desirability index similar to what he'd experienced in Nazi Germany: you had the straight white man, literal royalty, an attractive white woman, a couple of “gays” – separated, of course – then a non-human and the two black guys. Steve reminded himself to keep his cool. He knew attitudes like this were still abundant, but he expected better of an organization like the United Nations. He figured that this team must have been very good at what they did in order for their attitude to be tolerated.

What he didn't realize was that this team had been chosen by a small panel of UN members who supported the Accords as originally written, and they had been instructed to antagonize the Avengers in order to fabricate an excuse to “rein them in.” They were just getting started.

The Commander still had that shitty smile on his face, but he did move on. “Mr. Barton, would you care to tell us what you know?”

Clint looked around, feigning confusion. He'd noticed what they'd done, too, and he wasn't gonna have it. He pointed at himself. “Me? You think _I'm_ the brains of this operation? I fight _robots_ with a _bow and arrow_. I don't know anything. They just keep me around to make the coffee.” He turned to the rest of the team. “Am I up, guys? You need coffee?”

Despite the behavior of the tac team members, Clint was able to make the Avengers smile. T'Challa, while he appreciated what Clint was doing, wanted to turn in for the night and moved things along. “Captain Rogers, would you please present your intel to the room so we can be done?”

Steve took a deep breath. He really didn't want to be any closer to these people than he had to be, but the intel was the whole reason they were there. He scooped up the Winter Soldier manual, walked up to the front of the room, about four feet away from the Commander, and addressed the tactical team. He told them everything he knew about the Winter Soldiers, starting with when Bucky was taken by HYDRA. He ignored the Commander's inappropriate comments about his relationship with Bucky and talked over him. He told them about the brainwashing and the cryostasis.

When he showed them the book, Natasha joined him to summarize the content of the book. She returned to her seat immediately after.

Finally, he told them HYDRA had applied their serum to their own five-member elite team in the early nineties. He reiterated what Bucky had told them about their vast skill set and extreme lethality. He emphasized that the reason they'd been in cryo for more than twenty years was because HYDRA was afraid of them. He ended with the coordinates that Bucky had sent them, making sure they understood that their most recent intel was at least two years old.

“Thank you for your most thorough report, Captain,” T'Challa said, knowing that none of the tac team members would show him any respect.

Steve gave T'Challa a respectful nod.

“Yes, thank you,” the Commander repeated insincerely. “Don't forget the book.” He held his hand out to receive the Winter Soldier manual.

“Why?” Tony demanded. “It's not like you can _read_.”

Steve smiled and glanced at Tony. No, he did have to give them the book. He was sure it was a trap, though. The Commander may have held his hand out, but his elbow was still tucked in at his side, forcing Steve to walk to him to deliver the book. Now, he could set the book on the table. Hell, he could throw it at his head, which is what he wanted to do. One day they'd see each other again, and Steve or one or _all_ of his friends would kick his ass. But today, Steve was determined to take the high road, which meant placing the book in that bigoted prick's hand. He took the two steps necessary and handed him the book.

“You can go back to your seat now, _honey_ ,” the Commander cooed at him as soon as he had the book.

Steve hesitated. He reminded himself of the big picture: that keeping the team together and protecting Bucky and Wanda were more important than making sure this dickhead got his comeuppance in a timely manner. He turned to go back to his assigned seat but didn't get to take even a step before-

 _Smack!_ At first Steve could only think that he _didn't_ , he _could not possibly have_ , but the unmistakable sting in his behind confirmed that the tac team's Commander had, in fact, smacked his ass. It took him just a moment to process this horrible, ridiculous situation he found himself in. He heard the Commander laugh about how his backside was so taut that no wonder it could break fingers. In the meantime, the flush of his skin was growing with his humiliation and anger.

He peeked at his teammates from the corner of his eye. Tony was leaning forward like he wanted to stand, but Vision had a hand on his shoulder. Everyone was looking at him. They knew that look in his eye, and he recognized theirs: the “we came here to keep the peace, but now we have to watch Steve mow down a dozen elite United Nations commandos” look. It was a new look, but he could tell. He cracked his neck to the left. He cracked his neck to the right. Someone shouted, “Steve, no!” but it fell on deaf ears as he turned back around, stood toe-to-toe with the tac team's Commander, and got in his face.

Steve and the Commander stared aggressively at each other from about two inches apart. Steve knew this was a bad idea. He ought to stand down. But the angel on his shoulder telling him to cool his jets was losing to the little devil that was rightfully pointing out that this guy deserved the ass-beating Steve was about to give him and anyone who tried to back him up. He waited for twitch, a blink, anything at all to spur him to action.

King T'Challa stopped him with a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Please, Captain. Allow me to handle this.”

Steve let his murderous gaze linger for just a moment longer on the Commander before meeting T'Challa's eye. T'Challa nodded slightly, and Steve found that he trusted him to do as he said. Steve decided to give T'Challa a chance. He backed up slowly, then stood there a few feet away with his arms crossed and his eyes fixed on the Commander.

“Thank you,” T'Challa said to Steve. He picked the iron dildo up from his table, then stood in front of the Commander as he examined it. Eventually, he spoke to the Commander. “The Avengers have spent the last four years trying to protect this planet. If it weren't for them, the alien Loki would have taken over Earth, and every last one of us would have been killed or enslaved. We owe them a debt.

“I cannot pretend that they have not made mistakes in those four years. Unfortunately, some grievous and public mistakes have found them in a precarious situation. It is no secret that they need to regain the trust of the international community if they wish to continue their quest to rid the world of the scourge known as HYDRA. I have sat here and watched you take advantage of this situation.

“A week ago, you would not have dared to treat them so poorly. But today, you know that the Avengers are not at liberty to defend themselves from your discourtesy. To do so would put their very freedom at risk. But I'm afraid you've been so focused on sexually harassing Captain Rogers that you've overlooked something very important.”

The Commander was still smiling, not deterred by T'Challa. “What's that?” he asked.

“ _I_ am not an Avenger.” T'Challa suddenly cracked the Commander upside the head with the heavy iron phallus, then watched as the large man fell unconscious to the floor.

Everyone in the room gaped in shock. The tactical team stood, prepared to defend their Commander. Then the Avengers stood, prepared to back up T'Challa, even Tony and Rhodey, whose suits were still in the Quinjet.

T'Challa was unfazed by the threat of a massive brawl. “Anyone who would like to be bludgeoned by a black man wielding a metal sex toy, and then spend twenty years in an African prison, has but to ask,” he challenged the tac team, waving the bloodied dildo in the air.

The team exchanged harsh looks and hushed words briefly before coming to the consensus that they didn't want _any_ of that. That's what the Wakandan king thought. He announced that he and the Avengers were retiring for the night, leaving the tac team to plan to recover the Winter Soldiers as they saw fit.

The Avengers left the UN control room and allowed their contact, who waited for them as he'd promised, to show them to their temporary quarters. It was a three-bedroom suite clearly designed for visiting dignitaries with large families. There was a living space, a kitchen, and an eight-person dining table. The master bedroom had a king bed and a crib. The other two bedrooms were nearly identical and boasted a bunk bed across from a twin bed, for a capacity of three per room.

As the only couple there, Steve and Tony were obviously going to take the master bedroom. Clint, Sam, and Rhodey offered to share a room so Natasha could have privacy, but she wanted to split a bunk bed with Clint. That left Sam and Rhodey to divvy up their three beds as they saw fit. Vision didn't need a bed for obvious reasons.

Their contact finished showing them around, accepted a hefty tip from Tony, and left them alone. As soon as the door closed behind him, just about everybody rounded on Steve and demanded to know if he was okay.

Steve backpedaled, hands up defensively. “Guys, I'm _fine_ , alright? Good job keeping your cool in there, though; I know what was a tense situation. And Tasha, I'm sorry about... I didn't mean to grab your arm. I was just worried you were gonna beat the entire tac team to death with that thing.”

Natasha cocked her head. “Oh, I was,” she admitted with a shameless shrug. Then she looked behind him. “Tony, what are you doing?”

Steve started to turn to see, but Tony stilled him with a hand on his hip. Tony was crouching behind him, holding his phone maybe a foot from his butt. “What _are_ you doing?” Steve asked.

“Just dusting for fingerprints,” Tony said.

“On my ass?”

“You have anything else he touched?”

“He didn't- It's not like he grabbed me, alright? It was a slap. Guy was all palm. You're not going to find any prints.”

Tony's phone beeped. “Oh, look at that. Got two whole, two partial... and a palm print! If this guy put his grubby mitts all over any crime scene in the world, I'll know about it in the next few days.”

“Tony, you can't run those. We're not even supposed to know the guy's name. If the- Hey!”

Tony stood, screwing shut a specimen container with a swab inside. “Touch DNA,” he explained.

Steve turned around to face Tony. “As I was saying, if the UN finds out-”

“They won't.”

“You don't know that. We're in the UN headquarters. They could be watching or listening to us right now.”

“You think I haven't already taken care of that?”

Steve narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms. “I think your technology doesn't always work the way you want it to. Weren't you having a problem interfacing with the UN's software just this morning?”

Tony raised a pointed finger as if he were going to argue. But then he shut his mouth and lowered his hand. “So that is a fair point, but I am certain that no one is eavesdropping. I promise.”

“Fine. I believe you. But you still can't run those prints. _Or_ the DNA. It's high risk, low reward. Especially with the Accords on the line.”

“How about a compromise? I won't run either of them until after the Accords are settled.”

“Tony, please, it's not a big deal. Can't you just drop it?”

“I gotta be honest, that attitude is a bit nineteen-forties for me. In this century, we understand that touching someone's ass without consent is sexual assault.”

“Like you swabbing my butt cheek for 'touch DNA?'”

Tony sputtered. “Not the same,” he argued. “That was for science. More to the point, if this guy is brazen enough to do what he did to Captain America in a room full of Avengers, what might he do to literally anyone else?”

Steve shook his head. He was uncomfortable with Tony's application of the phrase 'sexual assault,' and he didn't disagree with Tony's view of the Commander being a potential sexual predator. But the team's habit of making unilateral decisions without input from the world got them in this mess. “I get that he's dangerous, but that doesn't mean his identity isn't classified by the UN. If you want to make an issue out of this, you need to go through the proper channels, or else you risk the team and everything we could accomplish. The answer is no, Tony, now delete that,” he waved his hand in the general direction of Tony's phone, “information you scanned.”

Tony scowled, but he pressed a few buttons and stuck his phone in his pocket. “Fine.”

The issue taken care of, the Avengers settled in for the evening. Steve knew Tony had been up all last night, so after a quick bite to eat, Steve took Tony by the hand into the suite's master bedroom. After they were both washed up and Tony was sound asleep, Steve threw on a tank top and sleep pants and joined the rest of the team relaxing in the living area. The team looked up at him and smiled in unison when he emerged from the master bedroom. It was a little creepy. He assumed they were trying to be extra nice because of the shit day they knew he'd had.

Natasha asked, “I thought you boys were going to bed?”

“Bed and sleep aren't the same, though, are they, Tasha?” Rhodey pointed out with a wink.

Steve fake-smiled at Rhodey. “Tony's had real bad insomnia since New York. You of all people should understand that. I do what I can to help.”

“Mm-hm,” Clint agreed. “I'm sure you were _hard_ at work getting Tony to sleep.”

Steve shook his head. He understood what Clint was hinting at just fine. Normally he'd scold him, pointing out that what he and Tony did in private was nobody's business. But time was catching up with Steve; it wasn't the forties anymore. People were open about these things nowadays. There were radio stations dedicated to discussions about sex. People divulged private sexual details on daytime television programs and on social media. Even celebrities sometimes talked about very private things on the late night shows.

And today? Well, the international news broadcast that he really enjoys receiving anal sex and that the serum has rendered his muscles so strong that it's unsafe for him to do so. Maybe life was telling him it was time to shed his hangups. He couldn't see himself telling Jimmy Kimmel or Conan O'Brien in front of a live studio audience the details of the time he 'almost broke [Tony's] dick off,' as Tony had so eloquently put it. But these were his closest friends. If there was going to be a place to start, it was with these people. “You wanna go there? Fine. No, Clint, I wasn't _hard_ at work. Tony was the hard one; it was just oral. That's how I get him to sleep. About fifteen minutes of that, then fifteen minutes full-body massage.”

“You suck his dick every night?”

“Oh, I suck it more than _that_.”

There was an outburst of snorts and guffaws from his friends.

Natasha recovered first. “Wait. Did you say the oral sex lasts fifteen minutes? I mean... that's a long time. Doesn't your face hurt? Does Tony really take that long to...?”

Steve shrugged. “I don't wear out. And Tony comes when I _allow_ him to.”

The outburst was worse this time, with a few “Wow”s and one, “Who _are_ you?”

Natasha interjected again. “I just have a quick, unrelated question. How long can you hold your breath?”

Sam answered for him, “About sixty-six years.”

Even Steve laughed at that one. The party was broken up by a knock at the door. Steve hustled to answer it.

It was a short-ish middle-aged white man with graying blond hair and wearing a gray suit and navy blue tie. He showed Steve a badge and identification card as he introduced himself. “Agent Everett Ross, CIA. I'm here regarding the mission to apprehend the Winter Soldiers in Siberia.” His words were respectful, but his tone of voice and facial expression radiated this attitude that Steve didn't care for.

Steve stepped aside and opened the door wide to allow him through. “Come in.” He closed the door behind Agent Ross and told him, “Tony just got to sleep, though, so we've been trying to keep it down.”

“That's fine,” Agent Ross said. “I can say what I need to say without shouting.”

“Oh yeah?” Sam asked. “What's that?” He'd picked up on the attitude, too, it seemed.

Agent Ross looked at each of them in turn, sour expression on his face. To his credit, he did keep his voice down when he spoke. “The King of Wakanda was in your company for less than a day, and now he's beating UN commandos unconscious with a metal dildo. What the hell did you do to him?”

Vision pointed out, “In our defense, that commando supplied the dildo.”

“Yeah, and the UN supplied the king. How are _we_ getting blamed for this?” Rhodey asked, annoyed.

Natasha tried to explain what happened. “We didn't do anything to T'Challa. The tac team was being deliberately antagonistic toward Steve. They left the-”

“He doesn't need a play-by-play,” Steve interrupted, embarrassed by the details and not wanting anyone else to know.

“He's right,” Agent Ross agreed. “The details are moot because they just left for Siberia without you. They said they didn't trust you guys to have their backs.”

“That's smart,” Clint said apathetically.

“That's _not_ smart,” Steve argued. “Those Winter Soldiers are incredibly dangerous. If even one of them gets away, that can have severe and lasting political or economic consequences for the entire planet. At the very least, we should be on site ready to assist if things go sideways. Suit up, guys. If we hurry, we can catch up to them.”

“No, you won't,” Agent Ross said.

Steve stopped in his tracks. He wasn't used to being overruled; he didn't like it. “Excuse me?” he demanded.

“This isn't your call. Let me remind you: you're Captain _America_ , alright? Not Captain _Planet_. This is an _international_ issue within the purview of the United Nations. They've tasked their own experts with this mission, and those experts, who have decades of training and experience, have determined you guys to be unnecessary to said mission.

“They've informed the UN of their decision. The UN is monitoring your aircraft and all the exits from this suite. Apparently, something is obstructing their attempts to monitor what you're doing in here, not that you guys would know anything about _that_. They can't stop you from leaving, but they'll know if you do, and I can assure you the Accords situation won't go your way if you interfere.

“So if you know what's good for you, you'll stand down.” Agent Ross started walking back to the door. “Order takeout,” he suggested. He opened the door and stepped outside. Before he closed the door, he finished, “Watch a movie.”

The six Avengers left in the living area stared at the each other in silence. After a minute, Clint asked, “Are we prisoners?” He laughed. “How did that happen?”


	6. The Winter Soldiers

It was morning.

Steve and Tony were curled up together on one of the sofas watching a popular TV series that had been on Steve's list for a while. Steve had been watching it most of the night while Vision patrolled the facility, monitoring for the tac team's return. Tony had joined Steve a couple hours before dawn.

Rhodey, Clint, Natasha, and Sam were sitting around the dining table finishing breakfast. The UN members were filing into the building to begin discussing Tony's Accords. The Avengers were not invited to the assembly.

Vision phased through the exterior wall and landed on the carpet. He had an update. “Captain, the tactical team has returned with the Winter Soldiers.”

Steve nodded. Despite the fact that a successful mission supported the tac team's decision to leave the Avengers in Vienna, Steve had hoped for his fears to be unfounded. “Good. Do their restraints appear secure? Any idea what the UN plans to do with them?”

“Anyone's face look bashed-in?” Tony asked, hopeful.

“The tactical team appears uninjured,” Vision answered Tony. He went on to explain to Steve, “The Winter Soldiers are not restrained, though they appear docile. I overheard the tactical team. They've used the code words to subdue them and are planning on presenting them to the UN as a possible addition to their team.”

“Jesus H. Christ,” Clint exclaimed over his breakfast, mirroring everyone's feelings about the situation.

Rhodey was dumbfounded. “Wait. You're saying that the tac team is leading all five Winter Soldiers into the United Nations assembly room, where they will be unrestrained and alone with the UN and the eleven idiots who thought this was a good idea?”

“You could say that the code words function as a restraint,” Vision argued, “but yes, that's otherwise accurate.”

Everyone marveled at what they all felt was a really stupid move.

“I gotta call Bucky and Wanda, let them know what's going on,” Steve announced, prompting Tony to give him enough space to sit up and collect his phone from the coffee table. He made the call.

“Hey, Steve.”

“Buck, is Wanda with you? We have an update on the situation here.”

“Yeah, hold on.” There were some distant noises and voices before Bucky spoke again. “Alright, you're on speaker phone.”

“What's going on?” Wanda asked.

“The tac team just came back. It seems they're using the code words to control the Winter Soldiers and are bringing them into the UN so they can ask the UN if they can add them to their team.”

“The code words?” Bucky repeated. “They volunteered for this shit, Steve. They never used the code words.”

 _They never used the code words._ The sentence reverberated in Steve's head. He dropped the phone and practically leapt from the couch in his haste. “The code words don't work on them,” he told his team. “They're faking. Suit up; maybe we can prevent a bloodbath.”

They were all fully dressed and geared within ninety seconds and heading out of the suite. They hurried to the UN's assembly room. “No response from King T'Challa or Agent Ross,” FRIDAY informed them on the way.

When they arrived at the doors to the room, they were stopped by two uniformed security guards. “I'm afraid you do not have authorization to access this room at this time,” one of them said.

“There's an emergency,” Steve explained calmly, despite the urgent situation. “Our intel suggests that the Winter Soldiers are faking being controlled.”

“I'm afraid I cannot grant you access to this room at this time,” the security guard repeated.

It would have been well within Steve's skill set to single-handedly disarm both guards and kick the door in, but he decided against it. Damn Accords. “Everyone in that room is in danger,” Steve insisted.

“That's a matter for UN security,” the guard said, indicating himself and his coworker.

Tony was done with Steve's restraint. “So do your goddamn job. Pop in there and let them know there's a problem. At least evacuate the UN members.”

The security guard was about to say something when a brief but loud cacophony of terrified screams erupted from the room, followed by total silence. The whole thing lasted maybe two seconds. The guard looked at the door, then at the Avengers.

Vision came up to the door and just phased his face through to see what was going on. When he emerged, he said, “The tactical team and all four security guards are on the floor. They appear to be dead. The Winter Soldiers are just standing at the front of the chamber, unarmed. None of the politicians appear to be injured.”

Tony speculated, “What's the kill rate on that, about one-point-five per second?”

“A conservative estimate,” Vision answered.

“That's not bad,” Tony mumbled.

The security guard looked at Vision, then Steve and Tony, then the door, then Steve and Tony again.

“Go get 'em, Security Man!” Tony said with mock exuberance. He held both his thumbs up in a sarcastic show of support. “You got this!”

The security guard stepped to the side and gestured for them to enter the UN chamber. They filed slowly into the room two at a time and fanned out along the back. The Avengers and Winter Soldiers sized each other up over the heads of the mostly cowering members of the United Nations. The Avengers slowly began descending the stairs at the ends and breaks of the chamber's rows. T'Challa, who was already in the room but wearing business attire instead of armor, stood and joined them.

“Guys, wait!” Sam shouted urgently.

Everyone stopped abruptly. They kept their eyes on the Soldiers but paid attention to Sam. Was there a trap that he'd spotted that everyone else had missed?

“This is the _United Nations_ , remember?” He continued to shout to be heard as he gestured to the politicians and bureaucrats in the room. “They don't want us to 'interfere' without authorization.”

Tony and Clint snorted, amused at Sam's nonsense. Rhodey and Natasha smiled.

Steve got the joke, but he frowned. Jeopardizing the safety of everyone in this room wasn't funny. “Sam-” he started.

“Nah, Steve, we should respect their wishes.” Sam addressed the Soldiers directly. “Can you guys come back a week from Friday? We gotta submit an official request to save the lives of these _bureaucrats_ , and it looks like there isn't space on the docket until Wednesday.” In front of five Winter Soldiers and the UN's entire chamber, he actually grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and started to write. He turned to the UN member cowering behind the table he was standing on. “Hey man, how do you spell Habeus Corpus?”

The man, who may or may not have spoken English, stared at him in horror.

“You know what? It's cool, I'll just rephrase.”

“ _Sam_ ,” Steve scolded.

Sam sighed dramatically. “Alright, but we better not go to jail for this!” He put down the pen and paper and rejoined his team.

Since the Winter Soldiers were unarmed and outnumbered – and lacked the element of surprise – the Avengers made quick work of them. The were all in custody and no longer resisting within sixty seconds. One of the UN's other tactical teams showed up with heavy duty restraints and containment vehicles to transfer them to some maximum security prison in the middle of the ocean.

Once the Soldiers were safely out of the Avengers' custody, they no longer needed to stay in Vienna. T'challa promised them that he'd do everything in his power to make sure the Accords situation went in their favor. Everyone headed out to the Quinjet.

Tony stayed on the helipad. “You guys go ahead,” he said. “I have some business to take care of; I should be home before dark.” He hugged Steve. Steve even kissed him delicately on the lips despite his discomfort with PDA, pleasantly surprising the crap out of Tony.

In the early afternoon, around the same time the Quinjet was landing at the compound, Tony was walking into an Austrian hospital. He'd done his research. This was the shift change, the time many of the morning nurses would be giving report to the afternoon nurses. That included the unit he needed to get into.

He wore a disguise that included a high-tech facial prosthesis, a fair-colored wig, scrubs, and a lab coat. His lab coat bore a forged badge that identified him as the hospital employee his research suggested would be least likely to be recognized or stopped.

He easily found his way to the correct room on the fifth floor. He closed and locked the door, then activated his little sound-canceling machine without being noticed by the room's sleeping occupant. Some more of his tech crawled onto the patient's bed and secured the man's wrists and ankles.

He took a look at the medical setup. His IV line was connected to two sources: a bag of saline and a analgesia machine with morphine locked inside. The bag of saline was nearly empty, and there was a fresh bag next to it for the oncoming nurse to easily hook up. How fortuitous for Tony. He removed a pre-filled syringe from the bag he carried and injected some of its contents into the running bag of saline and the rest of it into the fresh bag. He disposed of it in the sharps container.

Then he removed his wig, deactivated his mask, and woke the patient with a harsh poke over the bandage on his head. “Wake up, dickhead.”

The patient stirred and blinked his eyes. They slowly came into focus on Tony's face. He scoffed. “Stark,” he said groggily.

“Oh good, you know who I am. That means you know why I'm here.” At Tony's bidding, another piece of custom tech slithered into and over the man's mouth and nose. It wasn't suffocating him, just silencing him. Tony didn't care what the man might have to say. He leaned over the helpless man and reveled in the fear on his face. “Revenge just isn't as satisfying when your victim doesn't understand what's going on, wouldn't you agree, Commander?”

Tony removed another pre-filled syringe from his bag and showed it to the Commander. Then he screwed it into the port on the IV line closest to the IV site. He made sure to stare at the Commander's face as he slowly injected the drug. After it was all in, that syringe went into the sharps container, too.

Tony got in the Commander's face again. “You know how many layers of redundant security go into hiding a man like yourself. I want you to think about how easy it was for me to find you. How easy it was for me to walk in here, unimpeded, and inject whatever I want into your worthless body. That could have been anything. Ricin. Cyanide. Potassium. Insulin. Lye. Just a shit ton of assorted bacteria. HIV.” Tony smiled. Then he chuckled. He hated this man and was having a great time watching him suffer... and the drug hadn't even kicked in yet.

“You should be grateful to Steve. I personally wouldn't lose any sleep from killing you in your hospital bed. Steve? Well, he'd be upset with me if you turned up with a convenient case of the deads. That's why all I gave you was naloxone. It's not going to harm you, just negate your morphine for about ninety minutes.” Which was why he added it to both IV bags: to make it last. “You deserved the skull fracture T'challa gave you, and you deserve to feel it.”

The Commander looked a little relieved.

Tony couldn't have that. “Oh, we're not done. Because you see, you should be grateful to me, too. There's no one here to stop me from cutting off your fingers... or your eyelids... or your dick. That's my gift to you: I will graciously allow you to keep your body parts. But if you ever,” he got as close to the Commander's face as he could without touching and emphasized, “ _ever_ touch Steve again, I will be back. And all the armies on the planet won't be able to save you.”

Tony threw his disguise back on, collected his tech, and left. Once outside the building, he texted Steve that he was on his way. Then he got into his Iron Man suit and flew home, confident that the Commander was too proud to complain about what he'd done.


	7. Stucky Sex Scene

The Quinjet landed just as Steve received a text from Tony saying that he was leaving Vienna and would be home in a few hours. Everyone headed past Bucky, who was waiting expectantly for Steve, and into the compound.

Steve got off the jet last. He looked at Bucky with the intent to greet him, but something made him stop in the middle of the ramp. There was something... different. It took Steve a moment to figure out what had changed. Bucky was _looking_ at him. Really looking. Since he'd arrived a couple days prior, he'd had this perpetually shell-shocked, pseudo-unfocused stare. Even when he looked at Steve and told him he loved him, it seemed like he was remembering more than feeling. Like: yes, this is my childhood friend, brother-in-arms, and first love, Steve.

Now, it was like he was _Steve_. And it was like Bucky was really Bucky, not some Buckybot or a pod person. “Bucky?” Steve asked hopefully.

Bucky smiled, and this time it reached his eyes. “Hey, punk.”

Steve laughed at the old pet name. He found the strength to keep walking. “How are you doing? You look a lot better.”

Bucky hugged Steve. “I _feel_ a lot better.” He pulled out of the hug, then looked around them as if he were unsure of something. “Come with me.” He lead Steve into the compound away from potentially prying eyes and didn't stop until they were in his room. Once the door was shut, he pulled Steve close and kissed him.

Steve had hoped this was coming. At first, he leaned gently into the kiss. Three and a half years of dating a non-enhanced person had trained him the hard way to be very careful. But Tony and Bucky felt, tasted, and smelled exactly nothing alike. Despite the metal arm and long hair, the kiss was classic Bucky. It unearthed decades-old emotions and memories and reminded him that Bucky didn't need to be handled with kid gloves.

He pulled Bucky's body tight against his own and returned the kiss much harder than he could have with Tony. Their teeth clicked against each other as their tongues swirled together, both men needing to taste all of the other. Bucky slid his hands up Steve's back and around to his chest, where he knew Steve's suit's zipper to be. He pulled it open and struggled slightly to get the sleeves over Steve's arms since Steve was reluctant to take his hands off Bucky.

Steve wanted to return the favor with Bucky's shirt, but his didn't have a closure to open, and Steve couldn't bear to stop kissing Bucky for even a moment. He easily ripped it down the middle, causing Bucky to flinch and chuckle lightly. He let the destroyed t-shirt flutter to the floor.

Steve broke the kiss when he felt Bucky's hands pawing at his fly. He was starting to feel short of breath. “Wait.” He took Bucky's hands in his own and looked him in the eye. “Are you sure about this?” Bucky had only been back for three days, his mind patched up for merely a few hours. “You don't need more time?”

Bucky squinted at Steve. “More than seventy-two years? I don't need more time, Steve; I just need you.”

Steve readily accepted Bucky's answer because he felt the same way. He went back to kissing Bucky. He must have been kissing Bucky a bit too enthusiastically, because Bucky ended up backpedaling a bit as they both fumbled to undo each other's pants. Steve had to follow in order to maintain the kiss. He resembled a hungry kitten chasing a half-empty can of tuna around the kitchen floor.

Bucky maneuvered them to the side of his bed, then turned and pushed Steve onto it. He got to work wresting Steve's boots from his feet. He carelessly tossed Steve's socks behind him, then grabbed both pant legs and started to pull.

Steve helped, wriggling out of them while scooting back to the middle of the bed to make sure he was properly centered. He slipped off his briefs and tossed them to the far side of the bed while Bucky stripped off his own pants and underwear as quickly as he could. He noticed they were both already fully erect. He thought that didn't bode well for how long either of them would last, but he didn't really care about it since his priority at the moment was having Bucky inside of him as soon as possible.

Once Bucky was naked, his next step was to climb on top of Steve, but as soon as he was on the bed, Steve pulled Bucky on top of him. Steve wrapped his arms around Bucky's shoulders and hooked his legs around the backs of Bucky's thighs like some kind of impatient, horny octopus.

They continued to kiss, but Steve was still overdoing it, so Bucky had to stop. “Steve,” he said, turning his head to prevent additional contact. “Are you trying to kiss me or eat me?”

Steve looked sheepish. “Sorry.” He kissed Bucky some more, gently this time, like he had learned to be with Tony. He planted little kisses on his lips, down the side of his face, and back up the other side. He got back around to Bucky's lips, then got distracted by his increasingly uncomfortable untouched erection and feeling Bucky's up against him. “You know, Buck, I thought we were gonna do more than kiss.”

“Well I-” Bucky pulled back suddenly. “Shit. I don't have any lube.”

Steve was about to point out that he and Tony kept plenty in their room, but before he could say so, FRIDAY announced to them:

“Mr. Stark has stocked the bottom drawer of Mr. Barnes' right nightstand with a variety of personal lubricants.”

They both looked toward the ceiling while listening to FRIDAY's unexpected interjection. Then they looked at each other, confused, surprised, and a little disturbed by FRIDAY invading their privacy. They got over it quickly.

“Your fiancé got us lube?” Bucky asked with a laugh. Bucky escaped Steve's hold and leaned over to open the drawer. He pulled a handful of small, brightly colored plastic tubes from the drawer and set them on the bed next to Steve. He pulled out a second handful and a third. He marveled at the oversized collection threatening to spill onto the floor. “Your fiancé got us _a lot_ of lube. What, no condoms?” he joked.

“Mr. Stark has already determined you to be free of sexually transmitted infections,” FRIDAY chirped helpfully.

“How did-” Bucky shook his head, not wanting to know how Tony was able to run those tests. He picked up a hot pink vial. “Strawberry flavored,” he read aloud. He looked over the many tubes again. “Why are there so many lubes in the twenty-first century? I'm trying to have my way with you, but now I gotta sit here and read a hundred tiny bottles.”

Steve reached over, picked out the medium-sized clear bottle he recognized, and put it in Bucky's hand. “This one,” he said.

Bucky put the flavored abomination back in the pile. He knelt between Steve's thighs and pumped some of the clear lubricant over the first two fingers on his right hand. He swirled the slippery substance with his thumb to get familiar with it, watching it glisten in the fluorescent lighting. He tried it out on the head of his penis. It felt silky; he found he preferred it over the KY they used in the late thirties and early forties. It was cool, but it warmed as he spread it most of the way down the shaft.

He added another pump of the lube to his fingers and leaned down, reaching his hand under Steve. He had just started massaging the oil over Steve's tight hole when he caught Steve watching him. It was arousing but odd. Patchy as some of his memories were, they all showed Steve lying back, eyes closed, feeling what Bucky did to him instead of watching him do it.

With Steve's eyes on him, Bucky found it impossible to look away. He massaged the lube into Steve's hole in little circles, increasing the pressure in tiny increments until his finger slid into Steve to the first knuckle. Bucky loved how Steve went from gnawing on his lower lip to licking his lips and clutching the bedspread. He picked up the pace. He moved his finger in a growing circle until he had space for another, then moved them the same way until he could add a third. He pushed them in until he could tell he'd found the prostate by the way Steve's whole body twitched, his grip on the bedspread tightened, and his dick jumped.

Bucky smiled like a predator that had cornered its prey.

Without breaking eye contact, he leaned down and planted a kiss right in the crease where Steve's left upper thigh met his groin. Another jump. He massaged Steve's prostate with his fingers, letting the very tip of his thumb tease his stretched hole. He kissed Steve again, this time at the base of his penis. He started trailing little kisses up the side of the shaft until he felt something wet on his cheek. He wiped the fluid off his cheek with his metal index finger. He tore his gaze away from Steve's face just long enough to glance at the pearly bead: precum, naturally. He re-established eye contact, then put that metal finger in his mouth and sucked the liquid off of it.

Steve's eyes widened, and he made a little strangled noise and squirmed. He breathlessly warned, “If you're not careful, we'll be done before we even get started.”

Bucky laughed smugly. He pulled his fingers out of Steve, enjoying how Steve involuntarily bucked his hips at the loss. Seems Steve didn't learn any patience in the last seventy years. He crawled up Steve's body to ensure they were aligned. Bucky folded Steve's right leg out of the way, giving his own left knee space under Steve's thigh to find a little leverage. Steve seemed determined to maintain eye contact, and Bucky was happy to oblige.

Steve placed his hands gently on Bucky's head, tucking his growing hair behind his ears to get a better view of his face. He felt the round head of Bucky's cock probe at his hole, and he held his breath. He had never been so ready for anything in his entire life.

But then he waited. He waited, and he waited. What was probably only five seconds felt like five hours. Bucky was right: seventy-two years was long enough. Another five seconds of this torture, and Steve was sure he'd die of not having Bucky. “Bucky, if you don't get on with it, I swear to-”

Bucky loved to tease Steve. He had been waiting for his irritation to flare before giving him what he wanted, sliding inside him easily and fully while Steve was distracted by his own complaint. Normally-silent Steve groaned like a man taking his first sip of icy water after trekking a hundred miles through the desert. His eyelids fluttered nearly closed and his eyes lost focus, but he kept them fixed on Bucky's face.

Bucky knew Steve was being far too loud. He hadn't even grazed his prostate when he slid inside him. This was not going to last long for either of them; after seven decades and the way Steve moaned in his face, Bucky was in no more of an enduring state than Steve was. Bucky pulled back, adjusted the angle of his hips, and pushed back in. He was rewarded with a softer, higher-pitched, breathy sigh when he brushed Steve's prostate.

Bucky moved out and in again and again, attempting to find a rhythm. Steve couldn't hold on for more than seven thrusts before he was cumming even sooner than expected, and Bucky followed suit one thrust later. Bucky collapsed in a heap on top of Steve, the two of them devolving into giggles in seconds. Bucky rolled off of Steve, and they recovered from their laughter.

“Wow,” Steve said. “I don't think we lasted thirty seconds.”

“You lasted twelve seconds from penetration to orgasm,” FRIDAY announced.

That was even worse than Steve thought. “Oh God. Don't tell Tony; I'll never live it down.”

“Be right back,” Bucky said, getting out of bed and heading to the bathroom. A couple minutes went by, and when Bucky returned to the bed, he was clean. He got in his bed next to Steve with the hope of cuddling for a while.

Steve had other plans. He wedged himself between Bucky's ankles and ran his hand up Bucky's right lower leg. He looked Bucky in the eye and planted a tiny kiss on his knee.

Bucky cocked his head. Steve had always been adept in bed, but he had never been insatiable. If he recalled correctly, a few times a month worked just fine for Steve. “...You want to go twice in a row?”

Steve shrugged and planted more kisses down Bucky's shin. What he wanted was to explore and memorize every inch of Bucky's body. He had him memorized by 1944, but surely he's picked up some new marks. He trailed his lips methodically over Bucky's skin, kissing and licking every mark he came across, old and new. He moved down to the foot, up the back and side of the leg, up his flank and torso, then to the hand and back.

He followed Bucky's collarbones to the other side of his body, making his way down the left much like how he made his way up the right. He spent more time on his left shoulder and arm than he did the right. The shoulder was massively scarred along the edge of his metal arm, and then there was the matter of the arm itself. Steve hadn't exactly gotten to inspect it two years prior, and he tried not to pry when Bucky first showed up. He gave this arm and hand the same treatment as the other, though there were no scars to focus on. No matter who designed the arm or why, it was a part of Bucky now, which means Steve loved it.

He finished his journey of Bucky with his left leg, ending where he started, kneeling between Bucky's ankles. He was pleased to note that Bucky was both half-asleep and half-erect. Steve was feeling mischievous; it was Bucky's turn to be the prey. He leaned down and quickly licked up the underside of Bucky's shaft.

Bucky's whole body startled. “Ahhhh,” he exclaimed in surprise. When he recovered his faculties, he looked down at Steve. “You use your mouth now, huh?”

He had a point. Steve and Bucky had had plenty of sex in the thirties and forties, but after some light experimentation, they both decided that hands got the job done just fine without the aftertaste. “Yeah, well... thanks to the serum, there are limits to what Tony and I can do together.”

“Any port in a storm?”

“Something like that.” Now that he had Bucky's attention, he picked up where he left off. He licked and kissed his way up Bucky's torso along the midline. As he crawled up Bucky's body, he made sure there was plenty of “incidental” contact between himself and Bucky's penis. He liked to feel it slowly grow harder as he progressed. He got to Bucky's neck and made sure to leave a mark. He paused to admire the blemish he left an inch above the collarbone, near the scarring on Bucky's left shoulder, then finally found himself face-to-face with Bucky.

He laid little kisses all over Bucky's face and hairline. After enough of those, he planted one, hard, on Bucky's lips. Bucky leaned up into the kiss. Steve reached blindly into the pile of lubes to his right and found the right bottle. As he continued to kiss Bucky, he pumped some lube into his hand. He spread the lube over Bucky's cock, stroking it and slicking it up at the same time.

Once it was hard and slick enough, Steve went from kneeling between Bucky's thighs to straddling his hips. He leaned down as if he were going to kiss Bucky's lips, but he stopped short. They shared the air an inch apart, breaths merging in hot little anticipatory gasps. Steve braced his right hand on the headboard and pushed back slightly until he felt the head of Bucky's penis against his underside. He shifted slightly so that it was lined up properly, then pushed back the rest of the way so that Bucky was fully inside of him.

Steve sighed contentedly. He licked his lips. After a moment to adjust, he started moving. He established a rhythm and rode Bucky slowly. The twelve-second fiasco had been borne of frantic desperation. But this? The need this time was to experience Bucky fully and for as long as he could manage.

Bucky reached between them and began to stroke Steve along to Steve's rhythm. Steve stopped him with a gentle hand over his, though, breathlessly explaining that he didn't want to finish too soon. Bucky understood and agreed; he moved his hands to Steve's body, all over Steve's body, whatever he could reach.

They moved together for a long while. Steve maintained a slow tempo the entire time, but slowed further or even paused several times when he felt like one of them was getting too close. He would switch between kissing Bucky, running a hand through his long hair, and just enjoying the feeling of Bucky moving in and out of him and his hands on his body.

Back before the serum, he'd be able to do a bit more from this position. He had been short enough to ride Bucky and reach Bucky's chest with his mouth at the same time. Now that he was even taller than Bucky, he had to curl up on himself just to kiss Bucky on the lips. Bucky's chest would have to settle for Steve's hand or wait until they were done.

Bucky was content to let Steve lead, as he was wont to do in most areas of their lives. That's not to say that Bucky had nothing to do. He spent much of their time together feeling Steve's muscles work under his hands as Steve writhed on top of him. A few times, he hooked his arms around Steve's shoulders, pulled himself up to meet Steve's body, and let Steve bear his weight as they kissed.

Eventually, Steve took Bucky's hand and placed it over his own cock, silently encouraging him help him finish this. Bucky picked up what he'd attempted to do when they first started. He stroked Steve along to Steve's slow pace. He quickened when Steve did. Finally, Steve stopped moving abruptly as he cummed over Bucky's belly and hand.

Bucky felt so close, but he patiently waited for Steve to start riding him again so he could finish, as well... except Steve didn't start riding him again. Steve curled up and lay on top of Bucky as if he were going to go to sleep then and there with Bucky's hard cock inside of him. “Steve?” Bucky asked.

“Hm?”

“You stopped.”

“It feels like you're about to cum.”

“Well, yeah... do you mind?”

Steve snuggled in closer to Bucky, his breath hot on the side of Bucky's neck. “I'm not ready to be done. I love how you feel inside me.”

As cute as Bucky thought that was, his dick didn't agree. “Steve. My dick is not your ass-pacifier.”

Steve huffed like he was somehow the one who should feel put out. After a quick kiss on Bucky's lips, though, he did start moving again. In a few seconds, Bucky was cumming inside of him, and Steve returned to lying on Bucky.

Even though it was mostly Steve's effort, Bucky felt pretty self-satisfied with how much more time they spent having sex than those frantic twelve seconds. “How long was _that_ , FRIDAY?” Bucky asked, certain the AI was still paying attention.

“Two hours and thirty-one minutes,” she answered.

Bucky smiled smugly. He patted Steve on the back. “Good job, Steve.”

Steve laughed. “Thanks?”

Despite the fact that it was the middle of the afternoon and it wouldn't be Steve's night to sleep until the following night, they both fell asleep with Steve on top of Bucky. When Steve woke up, there was still light coming in through the window, so they couldn't have been asleep long. Bucky wasn't in the bed with him anymore, and Steve started to panic, as if Bucky's return had been nothing more than a dream.

“Bucky?” he called out.

The bathroom door opened, and Bucky walked through it naked. “What's wrong?” He must have sensed the anxiety in Steve's voice.

Steve felt better. “Nothing,” he answered. He kissed Bucky when he got back to the bed. “Everything's perfect.” Steve took his turn in the bathroom and returned to see Bucky curled up under the covers. Steve wasn't particularly tired, but he got into bed with Bucky, anyway. He wrapped his arms around Bucky and was bombarded by two strong feelings.

The first was just this sense of rightness in being next to Bucky again, of having his eternally loyal companion's naked body spooned against his.

The second was emptiness. Not like there was something missing in his life or soul, but a literal physical emptiness. Bucky had been inside of him for two and a half amazing, exhausting hours, yet somehow... “It's not enough,” he realized aloud.

“Huh?” Bucky asked sleepily.

Steve threw the covers off himself and “assumed the position,” so to speak, on his knees with his hands gripping the headboard. “Come on,” he ordered.

Bucky frowned and slowly sat up. “You want to have sex _again_? We just had more sex than we'd ever had in a month.”

“I know, I just... I can't feel you inside me anymore.”

“That's probably because I'm not inside you,” Bucky pointed out. He was kneeling behind Steve by then. He placed a hand on Steve's tense back. Something about this felt wrong. Bucky's sex drive was much higher than Steve's; they'd never been in the situation where Steve wanted sex and Bucky didn't. Beyond that, though, was how Steve was acting.

The first time, the twelve-second time, they'd both just missed each other so much. The second time? Well, they were making up for lost time, weren't they? Bucky felt satiated and loved. This felt entirely different. Steve's desperation felt different. He was acting like an involuntarily sober alcoholic digging through rubble in search of an unbroken bottle of rum.

“Just one more time,” Steve begged, “and try to hurt me this time.”

Bucky's jaw dropped. “What? I don't want to hurt you.”

“I can take it,” Steve insisted.

“Steve.”

“I want to feel you for a month.”

“ _Steve_.” Bucky could hardly believe it when Steve actually started grinding against him. It was undignified, especially for someone like Steve. He was determined to put a stop to it. He put his arms around Steve, but instead of what Steve wanted, he grabbed Steve's wrists and forcefully pinned Steve's arms to his chest. Bucky held him tightly as Steve squirmed in frustration.

“Let go,” Steve said.

“I'll let you go when you calm down. Now just... take a deep breath.”

Steve laid his head backwards on Bucky's shoulder. “I missed you,” he admitted. “I was so worried.”

“I know.” Bucky kissed Steve on the cheek. “I missed you, too.” He felt like Steve was calming, so he loosened his grip on Steve's arms. He continued to hold Steve tightly, but not to restrain him.

There was a knock on the door. Tony called out to him from the hallway. Steve was about to respond that he'd be there in just a minute, then get up and get dressed. Bucky beat him to the punch. He invited Tony in without letting go of Steve.

Steve, who was aware of how naked he and Bucky were and the position they were in, was immediately anxious. Tony suggesting that Steve pursue a relationship with both him and Bucky was one thing, but walking in on this scene was something else. He watched Tony as he appeared on his left and sat on the edge of the bed. Bucky's bed. Where Bucky was holding Steve... and they were naked... and Bucky was kissing his neck.

Tony looked at Steve, then just behind him at Bucky, then back at Steve. He smiled knowingly. “Feel better?” he asked.

Steve couldn't actually get any words out.

That's okay, because Bucky had his back, as always. “Yeah, he feels about two and a half hours better.”

Tony's eyebrows shot up nearly to his hairline. “Two and a half. Really.” He grinned at Steve. “Good for you,” he said sincerely.

Steve had no idea how to handle this situation. “You're not... I dunno... upset?”

“Why?” Tony asked. “I told you I wouldn't be. And I knew you needed this. The way I figure, you two are gonna screw each other's brains out for a couple of months before the three of us can settle into a more equitable schedule.” He leaned forward to kiss Steve, but Bucky's metal hand was suddenly covering Steve's mouth. Tony looked at Bucky, who was staring him down. Tony didn't care. He called Bucky's bluff and leaned in anyway, kissing the back of Bucky's knuckle right over Steve's lips. “Hey, Manchurian Candidate, you can stand down, alright? We're supposed to be a throuple here.”

Bucky narrowed his eyes at him but moved his hand from Steve's mouth.

Steve got his kiss then. It was odd but thrilling having Tony's lips on his and Bucky's lips on the side of his neck. Threesomes had never held his interest, but then, he associated them with casual sex. He loved both Tony and Bucky deep down into his bones. For the first time, he was really looking forward to the threesomes their future relationship promised.


	8. Epilogue

The Accords were finalized the second week of May. Likely thanks to the Avengers' role saving the UN members from the Winter Soldiers, the version of the Accords that was ratified was even more lenient than the one Tony had written.

Later that day, Tony held a press conference to introduce the new members of the Avengers. The UN had selected their two appointees quickly, and Tony thought that would be a good a time as any to add three other people he'd had his eye on.

The UN appointed Ruth Bat Seraph, a female ex-Mossad agent, and Shang-Chi, a male Kung Fu expert who was the son and adversary of a notorious Chinese war criminal.

After they were introduced, Tony got to the other new members. Unlike the the UN appointees and pretty much every other Avenger, the new guys preferred to keep their real identities secret. He introduced Ant-Man and the Wasp, who had the ability to shrink and grow themselves and other things, and he introduced Spiderman, who he described as a sticky parkour enthusiast who wished he were Tarzan. He had nothing left to announce, so he opened the floor for questions.

“Mr. Stark!”

Tony indicated to one of the journalists that she had his attention.

“Does Steve hurt you?” she shouted.

It was just force of habit that made him quip, “Only if I ask nicely,” with a wink. He was pleased at the spattering of laughs he earned until he got a look at Steve, mouth agape in a sadly betrayed expression. “Shit,” he muttered, realizing he fucked up. “I'm kidding. I take it back. Where are you getting this?”

The Avengers all looked at the journalist as she held out a thin stack of photos. Rhodey took them from her and brought them to Tony.

Tony looked at the photos. The first one he recognized easily. It was from that day at the UN when he'd accidentally broadcast a private discussion internationally. Steve was as angry as Tony had ever seen him, and Tony himself? He looked terrified. He sighed and showed for the record what image was being referenced. “Some of you may remember this from a couple weeks ago. I admit I look scared in this picture, but at no point was I afraid that he'd physically harm me. I was afraid he'd dump me, which would actually be worse.” He started flipping through the rest of the photos. Mostly, they were just images of him with visible bruises. “Am I supposed to be looking at suspicious bruises here? Do I need to remind you that I'm a superhero?”

“And kind of a jackass!” Rhodey added helpfully.

“Yes, and-” Tony paused to squint at Rhodey. “And I do tend to rub people the wrong way. There's nothing suspicious about me looking like I've been hit in the face. It comes with the territ-” He stopped mid-word at a familiar image and chuckled proudly to himself. He held up the image. “Well this was just sexcapades gone wrong. Remember that, hon?” He showed it to Steve.

Steve blushed adorably. “Please don't.”

Tony shook his head. He stuffed the sexcapades photo in his pocket and handed the rest of the stack to Rhodey to give back to the reporter. “Look, I appreciate the concern. Domestic violence is a serious problem and should be called out. I just have two comments on the matter.

“One: Steve would never, ever harm me if he didn't really have to. I won't speculate on what it would take, but the circumstances would have to be extreme to say the least.

“Two: you shouldn't bring these matters up in front of the suspected abuser. It's not safe. Abusers are irrational and violent. You might think that would make for an instant viral video, but anyone in the vicinity could be in danger, including yourself. No more questions, thank you.”


End file.
